w116 white smoke in the mornings only; weird!

[Mad Mick]

Hi Folks,

My w116 is a euro 350se (1975) used in Ireland. I have developed a weird problem in that I get billowing white smoke from the exhaust in the mornings only and only when the car is parked with the right hand side slightly elevated due to the fact I live near the top of a hill.
For three mornings in a row I have had this happen. When I first start the car there is no smoke issue, I the come out of my drive and go up a steep incline for about thirty yards and then over the hill on a steep decline for about three hundred yards, still no smoke and at the bottom of this hill I stop at the T-junction and turn right and it is at this point that a huge cloud of white smoke billows out of the back of the car. this happened on the same spot three days in a row and the following day I turned the car in my drive so that it was parked with the left side slghtly elevated and the following morning at the bottom of the hill there was no smoke.
I first thought I had a blown head gasket such was the amount of smoke.
My oil and water consumtion is minimal. I have looked in the water expansion tank with the engine running and there is no sign of any bubbles there. No sign of water in the oil.
There is no sign of any smoke at any other times and when the smoking occured it lasted for about five seconds.
Sorry for the long post but this has me stumped. I have done searches and not found any answer to this.

Thanks,

Vincent

[nhdoc]

white smoke is almost always coolant, but I have heard that brake fluid can also cause this so I would suggest you check the level of the brake fluid to see if you don't have a leak that allows fluid to be sucked in through the vacuum booster...good luck.

[alabbasi]

I remember reading once about a guy who bought a 350SE at an auction for 50GBP because it was billowing white smoke. Turned out to be because the car was overfilled with oil. you may be having a similar problem because of the angle that the car was sitting in. I had a simiar issue with my 6.9 when it was trailered to Atlanta, GA from Ministota and sat an an extreme angle. Smoked for about 15 mins and never since.

[Gregg Bambo Jr.]

I purchased my rust free 220 cabriolet at a bargain because the owner thought he had an expensive engine (blown gasket) and failing transmission problem. Under high vacuum instances the engine would bellow white smoke, in addition to poor transmission performance due to disappearing fluid. It turns out that this era's automatic transmission had a small compensator bellows on the vacuum line from the engine that age (32 years) had deteriorated and allowed transmission fluid to be sucked into the intake. Check your air filter cannister for evidence of red transmission fluid to confirm this possibility. My total repair bill was $15 for the replacement part. If this is the problem, you might also discover that transmission fluid was also sucked into your brake accumulator which will later lead to its failure.

[leenart]

I am going to way out on a short limb and say its water in your exhaust system. As you go down the steep decline, water is coming forward in your primary or secondary muffler and as you make the turn, thats when the exhaust heats up enough to burn the water. The clue here is your in Ireland and nearly every car problem is answeared with, 'its water related'
I don't think its a tranny vacuum as those problems get worse as you drive and generally take longer then 5 minutes to start burning the oil. To check it, at the turn pull over and put a towel or other absorbant material over your exhaust pipe and see what comes out.
Leonard

[Tomguy]

Sounds like a bad valve stem seal almost... If it were though, I think it'd smoke earlier than that? Not too sure. But if you park with the engine facing up an incline, the oil can't drain out the front of the head and sits in there. If the valve stem seals are old and crappy, oil will leak down the valve guides and possibly into the cylinder (if not just the intake or exhaust). If it goes down the intake, it might take a little longer to burn out I suppose, which could cause it.

Mine used to do the same thing, I started parking it facing downhill and it never did it afterwards (I have since put new heads on with new seals). Only did it after a hot run (when the oil would get thin) and I then parked it facing up an incline (even a slight one).

It doesn't take much oil at all to cause this. Start it up, let it run for like 30 seconds, then shut it off and pull the plug(s) for the #4 and #8 cylinders, see if there's any oil on them. If so, it's bad valve stem seals!

I recall reading years ago of the phenomema that Gregg Bambo just discussed. Definitely a possibility.

[GaryF]

Sorry I couldnt resist when I saw the UK number plate !

[Mad Mick]

Firstly thank you all for your input; it's very much appreciated.

For those who do not know what the VRT sensor is; VRT stands for Vehicle Registration Tax and applies to cars imported into Ireland. Thanks Gary, enjoyed that one.

Before I posted this, I myself wondered if I could have overfilled the oil level as I recently changed the oil and filter, I had done approx 2,500 miles on it since purchase. It was serviced just before I bought it and I had no need to top up the oil in that 2,500 mile period. I went to my local petrol station and checked the oil on a flat surface and it was perfect and so I posted this thread totally stumped.

This engine and box has only done about 13,000 miles since a full rebuild in 1992.

There is no loss of water or of brake fluid and the tranny fluid looks perfect and the auto box works beautifully. Plugs are perfect as is the air cleaner.

It would seem that the right side of the car being higher than the left and parked overnight is giving the symptom of there being too much oil in the engine.

I took the car out this afternoon and there was no problem and I had, left the car parked the other way round for two days. (didn't go out in it yesterday due to gale force winds and rain)

Thank you all.

Vincent.

[leenart]

"I took the car out this afternoon and there was no problem and I had, left the car parked the other way round for two days. (didn't go out in it yesterday due to gale force winds and rain)

Thank you all.

Vincent."

Ahh summer time in Galway! Gale force winds and typhons! The predictabilty of summer weather in Galway is in direct coorelation to the high tourist season.....